5. Collaborative Programmes Division

5.3 Zonal Research and Training Activities

Unimodal Plateaux (Southern Africa)

As a result of both the interest and the active participation of national institutions and the concentrated support of ICRAF, collaborating teams in Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia, and a national team in Zimbabwe each prepared agroforestry planning documents, which were presented at a workshop on agroforestry research for the ecozone. Subsequently, members of country agroforestry teams went through the training on formulation of location - specific research projects.

Activities during the planning phase resulted in agroforestry "blueprints" for the plateau ecozone of each country. These blue-prints serve the following purposes:

1. describe pertinent development policies for the ecozone;

2. examine existing production systems in terms of their objectives, structure and function, assessing the most relevant factors affecting their productivity and sustainability;

3. evaluate the potential of existing and/ or notional agroforestry technologies to overcome diagnosed constraints;

4. relate anticipated results of agroforestry interventions to selected development objectives, as a means to establish priorities for technology development;

5. appraise research infrastructure and on-going agroforestry activities;

6. identify institutional responsibilities in an agroforestry research plan for the zone.

A section of the participants in the IARC meeting at which co-ordinated A F research in Africa was discussed. The meeting, which took place at ICRAF's offices in Nairobi, Kenya, 22-24 September, drew representatives from IITA, ICRISAT, ILCA, TAC, USAID and ICRAF. It was chaired by the Chairman of' ICRAF's Board of' Trustees, Prof. H.A. Steppler (centre).

After the national "blue prints" for agroforestry research were ready, a zonal workshop was held in Harare, with the participation of planning task forces (TFs) and steering committees from each of the four countries. Based on a comparative analysis of the national blueprints, the objectives of the Workshop were to:

1. derive and priorities research lines of zonal relevance;

2. discuss the "modus operandi" of research projects vis-a-vis institutional responsibilities and overall coordination;

3. evaluate training needs and channels for exchange of information; and

4. plan follow-up activities.

The comparative analysis of the proposed agroforestry interventions for the 14 land-use systems identified in Malawi. Tanzania and Zambia (see Table 2) showed that 6 of the candidate technologies were of zonal relevance in the "upland" areas, while 2 of them would be important in "lowland" areas (see Table 3). Considering the main role played by the woody component in such technologies, three areas of research were identified:

1. selection of multipurpose tree (M PT) species, to fit technology specifications;

2. maintenance of soil fertility, by trees in suggested spatial /temporal arrangements;

3. fodder production, by trees/pastures in designed interventions.

The participating countries agreed to cooperate with the Southern Africa Centre for Coordination of Agricultural Research (SACCAR) and ICRAF in establishing a zonal research project for the unimodal upland plateau zone along the following lines:

1. that countries will provide research facilities for zonal activities at their stations in Makoka/Zomba (Malawi), Tumbi (Tanzania), Mount Makulu (Zambia), and at an institution to be determined in Harare (Zimbabwe);

2. that national forestry and agricultural research institutions from Malawi; Tanzania and Zambia will each second one professional to work full-time in the zonal project, contributing to operational costs within the limits of their budgets (Zimbabwe's contribution will await a more precise definition of their role in the network);

3. that the zonal project will recruit four senior scientists, one for each of the identified research areas, and will supplement operational costs as necessary;

4.  that each one of the internationally recruited scientists will be based at the designated stations (see i) fulfilling a managerial responsibility on-site and a scientific one in the zone (according to expertise);

5. that the project will recruit one zonal coordinator to be responsible for training, promoting active interaction among participating institutions, facilitating project logistics, and organizing training activities.

ICRAF staff P.K. Nair (upper row, second left), E. Zulberti (upper row, third left) and D. Ngugi (middle row, second left) pose for a group photograph with the participants of the AFRENA Zambia Training Course. Also seen in the picture are the leaders of the national agroforestry task forces S. Liyembani from Zambia (upper row. fourth left), J. Clarke from Zimbabwe (middle row, first left), E. Sabas from Tanzania (middle row, fourth left) and A. Saka from Malawi (middle row, second right).

Table 2 Land-use Systems and AF Interventions

Table 3 SUB-ZONES AND THE SELECTED SYSTEMS

Identification of the nursery site at Makoka in the Shire Highlands of Malawi. Water is a major prerequisite for the production of nursery seedling. This site was selected because of availability of underground water.

The Workshop was followed by training of Research Task Force leaders from each country on (a) the agroforestry approach to land use and (b) the ICRAF Diagnostic and Design methodology. This was a six-month hands-on training programme during which the team worked alongside ICRAF's scientific team in research formulation activities. They specifically participated in a "master" D&D exercise and a subsequent three-week training course in Chipata, Zambia. Three more scientists from each of the four countries joined the country leaders in this course. The general course development revolved around the Zambia case study, generated through the "master" D&D.

The Zambia Case Study was then developed as a location-specific research project for the eastern part of the country. A five-year research project has been formulated, emphasizing the generation of agroforestry technologies addressing fuel/ polewood problems, as well as fencing and fodder in livestock production systems. In each case special care was taken to design specific research activities complementary to the zonal ones identified at the Workshop. The proposal has been submitted to a donor for funding and it is expected that the project will be on the ground by mid-1987.

Following the conclusions reached at the workshop and the approval of the Zonal project by SACCAR, the donor agency (CIDA) amended the agreement supporting the planning phase, allowing ICRAF to initiate the implementing phase of Zonal research activities leading to the selection of MPT species fitting designed specifications, including the preparation of a research manual for MPT evaluation.